by Terry Spear
“I’m good. Thanks.”
Then Marcus nodded and left his room.
Ricky knew he had to sleep, but he sure wanted to return to Mandy’s room and tell her about this cougar business, not wanting any more secrets between them. Then he remembered what she’d told him about the new boyfriend. Well, the only thing good about any of this was maybe he could repair the damage between them, and her boyfriend would be out of the picture, especially because she was now one of them. But the other thing was that she couldn’t work as an LPN for a hospital in Loveland. He just hoped they’d considered hiring her to work here. But she’d have to take time to get her shifting under control.
He finally dropped off to sleep until he felt something large sitting on top of him on his hospital bed and his eyes popped open. There, sitting on his legs was one ferocious-looking cougar—female variety, her green eyes fluorescent in the hallway’s light seeping into his room.
Mandy couldn’t believe she was a were-cougar. What other explanation could there be? The cougar bit her. She was having nightmares about being a cougar, and now she was wide awake and a cougar again? It was the only way she could get out of her restraints that had confined her to the hospital bed. Big paws and skinny wrists, much easier to maneuver with and slip out of the restraints than it had been with her hands.
She had smelled Ricky’s scent when he’d been in her room and followed it to his room, which was something she’d never been able to do before. Her kitty cat paws had silently padded along the hallway not alerting anyone she was out and about, something that was new to her too.
Ricky had been sleeping soundly, looking angelic, for him. He had a fun devilish side to him, a little reckless when she was never that way and that had always fascinated her about him.
She felt a little guilty confronting him like this when he could be really badly injured. But if she hadn’t been hallucinating before, and this was all for real now, she wanted to know if he truly had been the cougar that had bitten her.
Bits and pieces of conversations had all come crashing back to her when she woke from a deep sleep and found she was a cougar again: that she had hit Ricky with her car, that he had bitten her, that she’d been turned, that others—a Hal and Tracey—would take her in because they’d taken care of the brothers who had been newly turned.
Now, she was sitting on Ricky’s thighs, giving him the evil cat eye, waiting for him to wake up enough to tell her the truth.
His lips parted in surprise, but he didn’t scream out in terror, which meant he had to be a cougar, right? Or he would have been terrified to see a cougar sitting on top of him. He clamped his mouth shut. He’d better not reach for the nurse’s call button.
He let out his breath finally. “I tried to explain to you earlier what had happened between us when Marcus made me return to my bed. I’m so sorry, Mandy. If I could undo what I did, I would I didn’t mean to bite you. I was just coming to, and I saw your hand reaching toward me and I panicked, thinking whoever you were would injure me worse. As soon as I snapped at you, meaning only to get you to back off and not hurt me, I realized I’d gotten too close to your hand and had actually bitten you. I swear I didn’t mean to. As soon as I was focusing better—my head was splitting in two and my vision blurring—I realized it was you. Mandy. My girlfriend.”
She softly snarled.
“Part of me hoped you had learned I was living in Yuma Town and had come to see me. The realistic side of me said you were just passing through and it was fate. I was in terrible pain though.”
He took a deep breath and rubbed his head. She wondered if he was still hurting and she thought maybe he should have more pain medication.
“I wanted you to come and join me in here so we could talk. Marcus said you probably wouldn’t want to be in the same room as me after you learned I’d bitten you. But I wanted to tell you it’s not all bad, you know.”
She growled.
“Really. It isn’t. We heal up much more quickly. I bet you’re healing up much faster than you would as a human right now.”
She had to admit her injured hand was starting to itch and tingle, just like the symptoms for rabies. But if it was just healing, then that was a good sign.
“We heal in half the time it takes humans to heal. My leg will mend in about three to four weeks instead of six to eight weeks. Your hand should be completely healed in just a few days.”
She could definitely get onboard with that.
“Your hearing and sense of smell are vastly improved if you wondered how you could smell me and hear so much that’s going on when before you couldn’t. The light’s turned out in the room and yet you can see me as though it was daylight out. Which proves you can see better in the dark. It’s great. Just think, you don’t have to have a flashlight in the dark. You don’t even have to turn on your lights at home if you get up and wander around at night if you don’t want to.”
That could be useful, she had to admit.
“The downside, of course, is that you don’t have a lot of control over shifting at first.”
Oh, just great. What about her job interview tomorrow? She could just envision having the urge to shift on the way to Loveland and having to pull the car onto the shoulder of the road and park, strip out of her clothes, and turn into a cougar. What if someone saw her and hunted her?
This was totally unreal. She hoped she’d be released from the clinic early tomorrow and she would still make it in time for her job interview. If this was still all some crazy nightmare.
“We don’t just shift when the full moon is out, like the old werewolf lore. You can shift at any time that you want. Well, it will take you a while to learn how to get your shifting under control. I’m really sorry,” Ricky said. “I’ll do anything to make it up to you.”
Undo it?
“Oh, and we can move really quietly, as you might have noticed, can run long distances, even if you’re not used to running, and can climb trees.” He smiled. “Leap into them actually from a long way down below too.”
They heard footsteps and she turned to look at the doorway, her heart beating spastically—the notion someone would call the police and have her shot—instantly coming to mind.
Marcus peered in, turned on the light, and frowned. “What in the world are you doing in here?” he asked Mandy, as if she could answer him, and then he turned to Ricky. “Are you okay?”
Mandy growled. Was Ricky okay? What about her? She guessed the nurse had worried she’d want to tear into Ricky for doing what he’d done to her. But didn’t he look perfectly fine? She glanced at his bandaged head. Well, maybe not. And she did do that to him.
“Okay, look, what do you want to do?” Marcus folded his arms while he looked sternly at Mandy. “Stay in here with Ricky? Or return to your bed for the rest of the night? No matter what, you’ve got to get off Ricky.”
She growled at Marcus, leapt off Ricky, and landed on the floor so quietly, she was amazed, then headed for the door where Marcus wisely moved out of her path. “Do you need anything, Ricky?”
“More pain medication, if I can have some.”
“For your head? Or your leg?”
Mandy paused in the hall to hear his answer.
“Both.”
That worried her that his head was still hurting. She wanted to know if they had done a CT scan for him. She snorted. A CAT scan. The good thing was he seemed lucid and didn’t seem to have forgotten anything, like being struck by her car, or who she was. He seemed to know the clinic staff.
Then she worried that maybe when they were cougars, they didn’t fully have control over their wild animal behavior—like the old movie Wolfman where the man turned into a wolf and killed people randomly. She wondered if she looked just like a real cougar, and not some deranged were-cougar. Then again, if she looked anything like what Ricky did when he was a cougar—though she still couldn’t believe he could be the one she hit on the road—he looked just like a real cougar. She needed to see her whol
e self in a mirror.
The issue with not being able to control the wild cougar part probably wasn’t true, since Ricky had explained he’d just reacted because he thought he was protecting himself and had been injured so badly. Any animal would have reacted in much the same way. As annoyed as she’d been that Ricky had turned her, she hadn’t had any interest in biting him. Or Marcus, for giving her grief either.
She reached her room and leaped onto the hospital bed but hadn’t judged the power of her jump and landed clear on the other side, knocking over her table, the flowers, a pitcher of water and a cup with a clatter of humongous proportions. She hoped nobody else was trying to sleep here tonight. If she’d been in her human form, she would have laughed. She tried again and this time she managed to jump right onto the center of the bed. It looked like this was going to take some practice though. She could imagine trying to leap into a tree and missing the branch completely. She hoped to get some practice in while no one was watching.
Marcus hurried into the room, saw she was lying on the bed and sighed. “When I took this job, I never expected to be dealing with newly turned cougars. We could send you to the vet clinic.”
And put her in a cage? Those were fighting words.
4
Early the next morning, Ricky woke to find Mandy pacing across his room. “Good, you’re awake,” she said, frowning at him. “I need to get out of here. I have a job interview in Loveland. I wanted to see you before I go and tell you I’m not angry with you for biting me. Any wild animal would have done what you did. I’ll…I’ll deal with this like I would anything else in my life.”
Ricky sighed. He understood how she was feeling. Her world had turned upside down and it would never be the same. At least he knew all about it, unlike those who were born as shifters. But it would most likely take some time before she could have some control over shifting into her cougar. And it was going to be difficult for her to understand that right away.
“It’s going to be a while before you can get your shifting under control. It can take months.” Years even, but he didn’t want to tell her that. Hopefully, she’d learn quickly. “You’ll need to stay with our kind. Yuma Town is cougar shifter run. So you’ll be safe here. Everyone will understand if you have to shift all of a sudden. Tracey and Hal Haverton have a horse ranch and they’re going to take you in. I think. I live there in the bunkhouse for now, but I’m a deputy sheriff and not a ranch hand any longer. Though I’ll help out on my days off.”
“You know how to ride a horse?”
“Yeah. Break them. Take care of them. Even help with foaling.”
“Where was I supposed to stay? The bunkhouse too?”
“No, my brother and I and Ted Weekum, the ranch foreman, stay at the bunkhouse. You would stay in the main house. I have to warn you Hal and Tracey Haverton have four three-year-olds.”
“Wait, oh, no, don’t tell me. Were-cougars have multiple births like their wild halves have.”
“Were-cougars? We’re cougar shifters. Don’t believe anything you’ve read or seen about shifters. But yeah, most everyone has a couple of kids or more at a time.”
Dr. Kate came into the room. “Here you are. I was going to discharge you this morning into Tracey Haverton’s care. She said she’d be happy to take you in and talk to you about everything you want to ask about and more. But I wanted to see how you’re feeling first.”
“My hand feels better, but the rest of this?” Mandy waved her hand at herself. “The rest of this I’m not sure about at all.”
“You’ll get used to it. Just like the brothers did. I’m sure they’ll both help you through this also, having been there and done it too.”
“I have a job interview.”
The doctor’s face fell, and Mandy knew she couldn’t go to it. She felt terrible about it. All she wanted to do was be a nurse. Then the doctor smiled and patted her shoulder. “We’ll make sure you’re gainfully employed as soon as you can control your shifting. Do you have any training in some field?”
“I’m an LPN.”
Kate’s jaw dropped, then she recovered and smiled. “See? You’re in just the right place. You’re hired. As soon as you can control your shifting. If you don’t mind helping with Tracey’s toddlers, or helping out at the ranch in some other way, then we’ll be all set for when you can come to work for us here.”
Tracey walked into the room and introduced herself. Ricky was so glad they were not only taking her in at the ranch, but that Dr. Kate was hiring her too. He hoped that Mandy would feel better about everything then and that she still didn’t have her heart set on working in Loveland.
“When can I leave?” Ricky wanted to go where Mandy was going as if he were a lovesick pup.
Dr. Kate said, “No more headaches?”
“No, I’m fine.”
“Okay, but if you start feeling poorly—”
“Mandy’s a nurse and she’ll get me back here if I need to return.”
Kate smiled. “All right then. Mandy, you have your first patient. Make sure he tells you the truth.”
Ricky was in a hurry to get out of bed and get dressed.
Tracey said, “We’ll wait for you in the lobby. Don’t rush. We don’t want you falling and breaking something else. Dan’s depending on you to get to work soon.” Then Tracey and Mandy left the room and the doc handed him his discharge papers.
“Remember, headaches, nausea, feeling dizzy, you let Mandy know right away,” Doc said.
“Yes, ma’am.”
Then Kate smiled at him. “I thought you only liked the older ladies. Now I know it’s because your former girlfriend has some kind of a hold over you, and no one close to her age would do. We’ll see you about your leg in about three weeks. Make sure you have an appointment for your cast removal.”
“I will. Thanks, Doc.”
Then Ricky thought of Mandy’s boyfriend, but if she was moving to Loveland, maybe they weren’t sticking together. She couldn’t be with him now anyway. Unless she thought to turn him. That was something else they needed to tell her. No turning other people. He was certain he shouldn’t be the one telling her that though—not after turning two people, possibly three, already himself.
Still, he wanted to know more about this guy as soon as possible. No way did Ricky want them to get back together, whether they had broken up already or were still in a relationship—even if she hadn’t been turned, but especially since she had been. He could just imagine seeing the guy here and her turning him and then they’d be one big happy cougar family in Yuma Town. Not.
Mandy really liked Dr. Kate Parker-Hill and was grateful she’d given her a job. The thing was that a job at the hospital in Loveland had never been guaranteed. She just hoped she could start working there soon. She’d never taken care of kids much, so she couldn’t imagine having to do that. Horses? They were huge and scary.
Taking care of Ricky as his personal nurse? She shook her head. Sure, she would take care of him if he needed her to, professional ethics and all, but he was still her ex-boyfriend.
When they were released from the clinic, Mandy was riding up front with Tracey in her car while Ricky was sitting in the back, being really quiet. She knew him well enough to realize he was hoping to get back together with her.
“You can’t turn anyone, you know,” he suddenly said.
The statement came out of the blue so sudden like it took her by surprise. For a second. And then she gave a sarcastic laugh. “Like you?”
“Yeah, well, I did it by accident.”
“With me.”
Ricky didn’t say anything.
“Why in the world would I bite anyone? Unless I don’t have control over it when I shift, I don’t see myself doing that, ever,” she said.
They were silent for some time as they drove into the country, then Ricky said, “I mean, on purpose. You can’t bite anyone on purpose.”
“What about your brother?” She understood why he’d want to turn his brother as clos
e as they were and because they had no other family to speak of. Their dad had died in a hunting accident that had led to their mom overdosing on prescription medicines. At last the dad had set up trust funds for the boys so the mother couldn’t touch their money to buy more drugs. But they’d always been there for each other. She understood that. She didn’t have any family left either. No siblings ever. So why would she want to turn someone?
“That was different,” Ricky said.
“Okay, you mean I can’t change some human guy I get interested in.”
Ricky didn’t say anything, and she looked over the seat back to see he was smiling. He quickly lost the smile and she rolled her eyes. She looked out at the beautiful fall colors. Wisps of snow floated down from the heavens.
“Halloween’s coming up in six weeks,” he said, changing the subject.
She didn’t respond.
“The cougars have a big Halloween party. Everyone dresses up. Kids and adults. If you have to shift, it’s no problem. Kolby and I were dressed in Steampunk duds when we both had to shift last year. We chased the kids around the hall as cougars, making them squeal in delight.”
She smiled. She could actually see Ricky doing that. She was a little surprised about Kolby doing that. He was more bookish, had more of a work ethic. Though she guessed Ricky did too, except his idea of a job had been downright dangerous in dealing with the criminals. Now he was going to be a deputy sheriff.
“Do you remember the last time you and I dressed up in Steampunk costumes?” he asked.
“Yeah, and the next year, you bugged out on me. I still have my costume. I thought I’d wear it to a Halloween party, if I found one to go to this year.”